School exams data to be published

Figures showing educational attainment levels among pupils are due to released amid growing concerns about school leavers' skills.

Leading business figures said the current education system was failing, with one calling for GCSEs and A-levels to be scrapped and replaced by the International Baccalaureate.

Data revealing the percentage of students who gained five GCSEs at grades A*-C, including English and maths, or three As at A-level will be published on the Department for Children, Schools and Families website.

In addition, information from local authorities will provide a regional breakdown and indicate if Government targets were met.

Under the National Challenge initiative, announced last year, ministers want at least 30% of pupils at every school to get five A*-C grades, including English and maths, by 2011.

Last year some 470 schools fell beneath the National Challenge benchmark and schools minister Vernon Coaker predicted that number would be about 280 this year.

Sir Michael Rake, the chairman of BT, said on Wednesday night he believed GCSEs and A-levels should be abandoned in favour of a "more credible" International Baccalaureate system.

He told Sky News' Jeff Randall Live: "I think A-levels have been devalued. I think there is too much specialisation too early, frankly, and I think things like the International Baccalaureate provide a broader range for people in the stem subjects."

He said its international nature would mean it would be "less interfered with," and added that it was increasingly seen as "more credible" by universities.

He added: "I think we need to understand we have a problem. We have got some of the best schools in the world in the private sector and some of the worst in some aspects of the state sector. What we absolutely have to do is make this apolitical and realise it is not going to be fixed in one parliamentary term."